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Bullets, Hornets, and Rosemary
Act 1 Marechiyo Ōmaeda had never run so hard in his life. His legs numb, his uniform stained with rain and sweat, his unsheathed Zanpakuto waving about wrecklessly with abandon, the Vice Captain of the Second Division ran as fast as he possibly could all whilst practically dragging his younger sister with him. The two siblings made their way through a dense, storm-ridden forest, wildly sloshing and smacking their way through mud and puddles, bounding over fallen trees and overflowing streams, and blazing through large and sharp branches with not a care in the world for what potential scars it would earn them. The young teenager was in just as sorry a state as her brother was; her kimono was covered almost head to toe in a foul combination of sweat, dirt, and spots of still fresh blood gradually being washed away by the falling rain. Her eyes cracked and red, heavy from almost nonstop crying at the tragedy that had just taken place, the one they were desperately trying to escape. "Don't...don't fall behind me, Mareyo!!" Marechiyo shouted, looking back at the young girl with a panicked expression. "We have to... get as far... away as we... can! Gah my sides are killing me!" "I-I can't... I can't... brother...!" Mareyo started to reply, before her legs started to give out from under her, now being full on dragged through a wet and miserable earth lifelessly. "Mareyo!" The heavy-set Vice Captain said with alarm, stopping his relentless retreat to attend the young girl's needs. "Listen, listen to me, hey!" He said as he quickly rested her against the trunk of a tree, lightly patting her cheeks in an attempt to keep her from fading out due to exhaustion. "You gotta stay with me, okay?! This is no time to be losing your composure!!" Mareyo was able to regain herself, partially, mostly due to her annoyance with her brother's coaching. "Y-You're way less composed... than I am, brother..." "SHH!!" He loudly shushed her, putting a finger to his mouth. "You gotta be quiet, Mareyo! Do you want that monster to come out here and find us?!" She could only roll her eyes in response. Under normal circumstances, she would be laughing at her brother's antics, but their current predicament was far from normal. Looking back in the direction from which they came, tears began to well up in her eyes and her lips began to quiver. "They... they're all gone... I can't feel any of them..." "Hey, hey..." Marechiyo, now with a more calm and reassuring tone, placed his hand on his sister's shoulders, trying to divert her attention back to him. "Listen, you can't feel them now because..." He paused, not sure if he could say anything that would truly reassure her under these conditions. He didn't want to lie to her, but at the same time he didn't want her to potentially hurt herself with grief. They quite literally were not out of the woods just yet, and even he knew that both of them needed to stay focused and on their toes. "Don't worry about that right now, okay?" He said, smiling slightly and patting her lightly on the head. "Let's just worry about getting to safety, alright? The Second Division Barracks aren't too much farther from here. Captain Suì-Fēng will help us get to the bottom of all this, okay?" The young girl sniffed, wiping her face and standing herself back up, using her brother's arms as support. Marechiyo, realizing that Mareyo was far too weary and tired to keep trekking on like this, scooped the girl up in his arms and resumed his sprinting deeper into the woods. While he may have assured Mareyo that they were headed in the direction of safety, in truth he had no idea which direction they were heading; he just wanted to get as far away from their former home as possible. After a few more minutes, the two of them stumbled out of the woods and into a fairly large clearing, one that seemed to stretch on endlessly for miles, littered with sickly white flowers that breezed about in an eerily calm manner despite the storm above them. Marechiyo had now hit a complete roadblock; not only was he completely uncertain of where he was going, but now he was absolutely uncertain of where they were now. But even amongst his encroaching panic, the falling rain, and the occasionally beat of thunder, he could hear it. Clink.... Clink... The sound. Clink.... Clink... The same sound that became the genesis of tonight's events. He turned around slowly, the sweat and rain on his face almost freezing in place as he faced the direction he and his sister had just come from, backing up carefully and further into the field. "...They gon' hang me... in the mornin'....a'fore the night is done..." And then came the voice, that dreaded voice. In his retreat from the horrific events that had transpired at the Ōmaeda Clan Estates, he had failed to truly make out just what it was that had attacked them, but with this voice, and the Spiritual Pressure that was slowly manifesting itself before him, he could tell that this was the source. "...They gon' hang me in the mornin'... I'll never see the sun..." The being was now fully revealed before them, steadily emerging from the darkness of the treeline with a pair of sinister, glowing red eyes. It resembled a wild west outlaw, or at least the corpse of one, with pale white skin that was dotted with faint grey blotches, all concealed underneath of a torn and ragged brown cloak. Once the being had fully made himself visible, standing at the edge of the field, he revealed a wide, toothy yellow grin as he addressed the Vice Captain and his sister. "Evenin'." ---- Suì-Fēng's Haori billowed softly in the stormy wind, her composure that of a mighty stone standing defiant against tidal waves, waves that smelled of blood and death. She stood solemnly in front of the formerly luxurious and excessively vain Omaeda Clan Estate mansion, which was now so heavily run down and damaged, it would look as if it had been abandoned for decades. But the seasoned Captain knew that this wasn't the case; the smell was evidence enough. Large holes dressed with black scorch marks dotted the exterior of the mansion, with most of the visible windows having been all but shattered. On the upper floor of the mansion, she could see a horrifically bloodied corpse hanging partly out of one of these shattered windows. From the hair and garments, she could tell this was what was left of Mareka Ōmaeda, having been killed by several small projectiles and was now impaled on a large piece of glass. "Must've been trying to escape or call for help, and got killed while her back was turned..." Suì-Fēng surmised inwardly, noting the brutality of the woman's demise. Normally she would assume that this was the attack of bandits or even Hollows, but there was something...off about this particular event, as if it were something outside of her comprehension. Nonsense. She had bore witness to many tragedies and horrors during her tenure as Captain, and this one would be no different. She couldn't help but feel even a slight bit of satisfaction at what had transpired here, hopeful that she would no longer have to look at or deal with this hideous-looking and pompous rathole of a Clan any longer. But alas, no matter what her personal feelings on the matter were, it was her duty to investigate and solve this matter. Moreso than that, her Vice Captain was missing in action, and if his corpse was somewhere here amongst this ruin, she would have to recover it for proper burial. "Maybe this will be a lesson for you, Marechiyo, on what happens to those who become far too content with their self-serving lifestyle..." She raised up her left hand, before clenching it into a fist. At the moment her fingers met her palm, nearly a dozen members of the Patrol Corps leapt out from the various shadows and trees that surrounded her, seamlessly entering the mansion with ease. After a few seconds, Suì-Fēng made her way towards the front door, not having sensed any further danger awaiting them within, and was quickly greeted by one of her kneeling soldiers. "How many?" She asked calmly. "So far, at least thirty, ma'am." The soldier replied diligently. "The perpetrator appears to be using armed projectiles of sorts, but we haven't seen any sort of wounds like these before, at least in my time. Our forensics, at least from what limited forensics we could perform, indicate that these weapons prevent any form of reincarnation." He continued, before looking up at his Captain solemnly. "All those here who have died... are well and truly gone." "So the attacker was a Quincy?" The Captain inquired. Knowing her troops were too smart to try and lie or trick her, she now tensed up slightly. The last war had all but proven to her that she could not afford to underestimate any potential foe, especially if they were a Quincy. "No, we don't believe so ma'am." The soldier responded, lowering his head once more. "These bullet wounds are... arcane to us. We've never seen anything like them before." "Hmph." She scoffed, walking past the corpsman and further into the mansion, wanting to see the results of this apparent genocide for herself. She could tell right off the bat that he hadn't lied about the number of dead that littered the floors and balconies of the mansion interior. Fresh blood dripped and oozed from the walls and floors, large burn holes were located at several different locations, accompanied by several charred limbs, and it seemed as if all life had been completely sapped from the mansion, save for the Patrol Corps and herself. As she made her way upstairs, she was greeted by a particularly egregious sight once she reached the second floor. It was what remained of Marenoshin Ōmaeda, the now former head of this Clan. His body was sat down on the floor, his back resting against the wall, and imprinted into this wall was a large, steaming white mark. The mark was visible only because Marenoshin's corpse was missing everything between his two shoulders from his stomach up, as if he had been blown up from the inside. "It appears he was shot with a special type of projectile." Suì-Fēng commented. "At least compared to the others. Looks like he was shot in the stomach, and then whatever it was blew up inside of him..." "Captain!" Her observations were interrupted by another Corpsman, emerging from a room down the hallway to her right. While he initially appeared to be just as stoic as the rest of his teammates, Suì-Fēng was able to make out several beads of sweat steadily moving down past his brow. "What's wrong soldier?" She asked with a tilt of her head and a smirk. "Surely a little blood and death hasn't gotten you that worked up, hasn't it?" The soldier pointed into the room, his expression unchanging. "You... need to see this." "Tch." The Captain scoffed once more, humoring the Corpsman's request if only so that she could potentially mock his lack of resolve. "Remind me when we get back to the barracks to put you all through some more rigorous exercises. Weakness in my Division will not be-" She took one step into the room, and froze almost immediately. "...tolerated..." Children. Dead children. "What..." She thought inwardly, her silver sleek eyes deadlocked upon the horrific sight laid out before her. This room, a child's playroom, was full of deceased children, over a dozen of them. Siblings and cousins of Marechiyo's, no doubt. There was no blood, no scorch marks, no obvious sign of force or violence, just death. In all her years of being a Captain, Suì-Fēng had seen many things. She had seen comrades be killed by raging Hollows and Quincy troopers, every day people starving in the streets, people be horrifically mutated in ways they shouldn't be... but she had never seen anything like this. "...It appears they were killed first." The Corpsman muttered, averting his eyes from the room as best as he could. "The... murderer appeared to have used some form of gas to kill them quietly." "No matter the method..." The Captain growled lowly, clenching her fists. She was hardened. She was loyal. She was fierce and unyielding in the eyes of adversity. She would not bat an eye towards a comrade arriving at death's door, or have any mercy for her enemies when they fell before her, but even one such as she could never excuse the ruthless killing of ones so small and innocent. "... this monster murdered children. I will bring them to justice, and if they resist..." Her eyes briefly lit up with a bright blue glow of resolve, declaring loudly. "... I'll simply drag them to it!!" Act 2 "Shit..." Marechiyo was now at a complete dead-end. The entity that they had been fleeing from this whole time had managed to catch up with them as if it were nothing and was now staring them down amidst this miserable storm. Instinctively, he continued to hold Mareyo with his left arm while using his right one to unsheathe his Zanpakutō, pointing it at the entity in a threatening manner. "St-Stay right where you are! Don't come any closer, you hear me?!" The being's grin only became more visible, his cloak continuing to billow softly in the wind as he pulled out a large cigar from underneath his cloak and put it in his mouth. "Did you say somethin', boy?" He responded, lighting the cigar. "It's a bit late for you to start tryin' to hold your ground now, don't you think?" The Vice Captain did not immediately respond, clenching his teeth and continuing to keep the sword held at the being. Mareyo in the mean time was unable to take her eyes off of the man, the thing standing in front of them. It was like she was staring into the horrific form of a ghost, or a wraith, something that the being quickly took notice of. "It's a shame that you had to bear witness to all of that mess back there, little one." He said, eyeballing her in particular while continuing to grin, taking a large puff of his cigar before exhaling the smoke through his nose. The smell was so foul that even amidst the storm and rain, Marechiyo could smell the toxicity of it, tilting his body to where Mareyo would not be hit by it. "I intended to make your passing quick and quiet like the other ones..." A hissy sigh parted between his teeth. "But it don't matter now..." His hands reached back into the depths of his cloak, before re-emerging with two long, solid black colt revolver hand guns and aimed them directly towards the two siblings. "You're both gonna be greetin' the good Lord here in just a minute anyway." The sight of the firearms caused Marechiyo to nearly drop both his sword and his sister. There was no need for this entity to close the distance between them, for he could kill them from virtually any distance that he so pleased. There wasn't any point in running, for there was nothing but open plains for as far as he could see behind him. All he could do was hold his sister tighter against him, hoping that he could shield her for at least a little longer, hoping that he would be the first to go, and not have to watch Mareyo suffer the same fate... With a pull of both triggers, the figure fired off two shots from his hellish pistols towards the Vice Captain. The roar of the gun barrels synchronized almost perfectly with the sound of distant thunder, the flames discharged alongside a strike of lightning, and Marechiyo braced both himself and his sister for the inevitable blow... Seconds passed... more seconds than he thought would. He could have swore he heard the guns being fired, so why was he still standing unharmed? His eyes cracked open, and immediately widened upon realizing what he was looking at. The entity had now been completely surrounded by members of the Patrol Corps, all of them with their swords pointed at the entity's form, and standing directly in front of him was the stoic form of his Captain, Suì-Fēng. Her Captain's haori billowed softly in the wind, in almost perfect rhythm with the entity's torn and ragged brown cloak. "C-Captain?!" He shouted, opening himself up upon realizing that help had arrived. "You were able to get my distress call!" "Hmph." The Captain responded nonchalantly, holding her right hand out to the side and dropping two bullets from them onto the ground. The entity's projectiles had indeed been fired at the two siblings, but they had both been intercepted by Suì-Fēng just in the nick of time. "I was surprised that you had even managed to send me a Hell Butterfly in the first place. You're lucky I even bothered answering it." She continued, glancing backwards towards the Vice Captain. "Now, get in formation. We're going to take this... thing into custody." He initially started to comply, but as he took his first step, he felt Mareyo clenching his uniform tightly, shaking uncontrollably as she had not taken her eyes off of the cloaked entity this entire time. Realizing that she could only be put in even more danger upon getting closer to him, he gulped at the prospect of both that and of angering his Captain. "Ōmaeda!!" Suì-Fēng yelled out, clearly frustrated by her Vice Captain's lack of response. "I'm sorry Captain!" He responded, his face now sweating profusely. "I... I need to protect my sister first and foremost! Forgive me!" The Captain's patience only continued to run thinner and thinner, but she wouldn't have the chance to reprimand her subordinate further. The entity had slowly begun to raise up his arms in surrender, his still grinning teeth clenching tightly around the butt of his cigar. "Well I'll be damned, looks like I'm gettin' more and more sloppy." He said, his words directed towards the Captain directly. "I was hoping to finish this all nice and simple, not lettin' any o' you Shingami get involved..." "I would watch what words slip out of that mouth of yours, shade." Suì-Fēng replied back firmly, immediately turning her attention back to the being in question. Her troops had not budged an inch since they arrived, continuously keeping their swords trained on him every time he moved. "You're one wrong move from being impaled from every possible angle..." As she continued speaking, she noticed that this being didn't seem particularly alarmed or panicked over their current predicament. Were she a younger Suì-Fēng, she would have passed this off as mere overconfidence, but these days she knew better. She could not afford to take any risks, especially with an enemy as arcane as this one. She held her left hand behind her back, her index and middle finger pressing up against one another as small yellow embers of Spiritual Energy began to crack and pop around her hand. "Tell me your name, spirit." She said calmly. The being smiled, inhaling one large puff of his cigar. "I am..." He began, his blank orbs staring directly into Suì-Fēng's. "...Vengeance." With that, Vengeance released a unusually large puff of smoke from his nostrils, one that quickly spread throughout his immediate area and swallowing the Patrol Corps officers in it's wake. Initially the officers simple coughed and tilted their heads away from the foul smelling vapor, but in the same instance of performing that action, they were each suddenly finding themselves unable to breathe. Their eyes bloodshot and their movements frantic, the Patrol Corps members began to drop to the ground one by one. Once they did, Vengeance brought both of his guns down to aim them directly at his Shinigami opponent, using the smoke to throw her off of his position. "Sajō Sabaku!" Just as he did so, however, a bright yellow chain of Spiritual Energy quickly pierced through the veil of toxic smoke and wrapped around him intensely, pressing his arms against his sides and keeping his guns aimed harmlessly at the ground. As the smoke cleared away, he could see that Suì-Fēng had launched this potent binding spell against him just as the smoke had left his nostrils. "You think this is gon' be enough to..." Vengeance started to boast, until he saw Suì-Fēng place her right arm on top of her left. "Tsuzuri Raiden." She said stoically, her eyes glaring menacingly at those of her opponent's before a visible surge of electricity traveled from her left arm through the energy chain, before engulfing Vengeance fully. "Nnnngh!!" Vengeance couldn't help but jolt and grunt as relentless waves of electricity surged throughout his body. In the same instant that the electric spell made it's way to him, Suì-Fēng pulled on the chain, jerking Vengeance towards her position. As he flew helplessly towards the Shinigami, her feet planted themselves firmly in the ground, and an intense aura began to build up around her. Her left fist clenched, before it shot out and struck Vengeance square in the chest. "Ikkotsu!" She declared. The visible impact of the punch created a shockwave that blasted the thousands of rain drops surrounding them away, her Sajō Sabaku spell shattering as well, and Vengeance was sent flying back into the forest from whence he came. His form could be seen blasting through every tree in his path, before Suì-Fēng could see a large upheaval of dirt and debris at least a kilometer away, signaling that he had finally made impact with something and his movements had halted. Mareyo and her brother were both in shock at how quickly Suì-Fēng had dispatched the being known as Vengeance, she in particular enamored with the pure style, grace, and precise nature of the Captain's every move. "Your boss is really cool, brother..." She said quietly, not even really meaning to address Marechiyo in particular as much as outwardly express her own feelings. "Yeah..." The older of the two siblings responded with a confident smile, mostly just relieved that their problem seemed to have been resolved rather quickly. "That was amazing, Captain!!" Marechiyo shouted, breaking his Captain's concentration. "You haven't learned a thing, have you?" Suì-Fēng replied, addressing the Vice Captain while keeping her eyes focused intently on the area that Vengeance supposedly now was. "Never assume that your foe is vanquished, not until you are absolutely certain that there is not a single trace left of them." She continued, her tone mostly calm and stoic, but still carrying that hint of harshness she always used when addressing him. These were words that she had taught herself after her previous encounters and defeats at the hands of those such as Barragarn Louisenbarn and BG9, both of which having tempered her once impervious ego, and taught her valuable lessons in the art of battle. "C'mon Captain..." Marechiyo replied sheepishly, setting his sister down on her feet. "Did you see that guy? He was nothing but bones! And you hit him with a full on Ikkotsu! There's no way he-" A bullet suddenly shot out from the depths of the forest, faster than the previous ones that Suì-Fēng had been able to predict, before seamlessly striking Marechiyo in his left eye. His sentence was now interrupted by a chilling scream of pain as he fell back onto the wet ground, grasping his freshly made wound with both hands. Mareyo shrieked in terror, immediately rushing to her brother's side. Suì-Fēng eyes widened in surprise at the sudden attack. Marechiyo had left himself wide open of course, so it was only natural that he would be picked off first, but what surprised her so much was how the attack had managed to slip right past her. Was Vengeance faster than he had previously been letting on? Her question was answered almost immediately when she felt a cold metal object begin to press against her left temple. Vengeance had now appeared right next to her, his glowing red eyes and his yellow grin the only visible parts of his blackened form, and was now holding his right handed pistol against her and pulling the trigger. She could hear the mechanisms within the firearm clink and adjust, and just as the hammer came down, the Captain demonstrated her mastery of Shunpo and vanished just as the weapon fired. She then reappeared on Vengeance's left, performing a roundhouse kick directly towards the side of his head with her right heel, but the wraith quickly managed to counter the maneuver, quickly holding up his left arm and blocking the strike with no visible sign of strain. He then twisted around, swatting her leg aside before bringing his right gun around and firing it towards her. However, Suì-Fēng used the momentum of her right leg being pushed away to bring her left one up to kick Vengeance's right gun hand, causing it to fire harmlessly into the sky. She landed back on her feet, and Vengeance fully twisted back around to face her once again, aiming both guns at her... In Progress Trivia *The title of this article is a reference to the song "Rosemary" by Deftones, which according to the author is the theme of this story.